Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/WikiArabia 2024 Conference Grant Request

WMF review and feedback

Hi @Mervat and the Wikimedians of the Levant User Group.

Thank you very much for this proposal and for your initiative in organizing WikiArabia 2024. I highly appreciate the time and effort you put into this proposal. I have reviewed your proposal and have some comments and follow up questions:

• 65 responds to a regional event in the scale is extremely low. Why do you think you received such a low rate of responses? It is a bit concerning especially as you indicate that you sent it to 500 people.

>>> You are absolutely correct, there are 2 reasons, the first is that we were running off time, so we counted the responses by the time of submitting the proposal, but kept it for longer. However, the additional responses (after the submission) don't really count, we had to close the survey because it was hacked, someone or more added hundreds of irresponsible replies. Despite that, we thing the 65 responses represent the community, they are diverse and helped decide some things like the best time to schedule the conference and the main topics we should focus on.

• Can you please elaborate on what are some of the gaps and challenges the community is facing? I acknowledge the fact that the community did not have a regional event in a few years, but can you please explain what is the benefit of the conference and the participants other than gathering? I'm afraid the objectives are not clear and the need is not well represented.

>>> The last regional meeting was in 2022, so we only missed 2023; So we hope that 2024 would compensate for the missing year. the past years were really challenging and stressful, many things happened that affected the community.

1. Networking and socializing is one of the aspects that conferences have proven to enhance, whether local, regional or international. Conferences allow individuals to get to know each other, cooperate, exchange experiences and discuss face to face; as well as being helpful in bridging viewpoints and bridging the gap between groups.
2. The Arabic community lacks technical expertise; WMF is giving the technical part a huge priority in its annual plan; the community needs to learn more about this, including new tools, ideas for creating new tools, and advanced methods that can be activated to support content by employing artificial intelligence and technology....
3. The community is growing, more entities are being involved, and user groups are trying their best to cooperate and partner with different institutions; the community needs to learn more about how they can expand effective collaboration regionally and globally.
4. Many challenges related to the Arabic Language need to be discussed, e.g. the dilemma or scientific terminology.

• What are the pillars of this conference? Not sure I understand what you have identified.

>>> We thought of focusing on 3 pillars: Arabic Language and education-related challenges; documentation of the heritage (ideas, success stories, ongoing projects, adapting AI to develop tools that help identify heritage locations, etc.; and third enhancing the technical aspect and technical expertise, including editing tools, artificial intelligence, translation tools, etc.

• Will there be any on-ground organizers in Jordan?

>>> Yes, at least 3 people.

• Visa risk, by looking at this Passport index, Jordan appears to be one of the less Visa friendly countries. And with the war in the region at the moment, unfortunately that may bring even more challenges in obtaining visas. Do you currently have any relationship or connection to the national authorities to help address this?

>>> Not sure how accurate this page is. We previously checked the visa requirements and learned that most Arab people can enter Jordan either without a visa or by a visa on arrival; however, according to Ministry of Interior, the following Arab countries are restricted: Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Mauritania, Sudan and Libya, which means we need to obtain official approvals for the participants from these countries; we don't expect anyone from Somalia or Mauritania, maybe 2 from Sudan, 2 from Libya, 7 from Iraq and 2 from Yemen. The Conference Organization Company that we'll work with will help us obtain the approvals because they have the appropriate relations and experience for that. They will also help with any visa special cases we may face. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs website lists the "restricted" countries that require prior approval.

Budget:

• Why do you need ‘Photography and videography’ for 3 days? Do you intend to record and share all sessions? I’m not sure I see the value or need of a photographer for the entire conference at such a cost (for reference - this is more than the cost for the venue for 3 days). If this is only to capture highlights or to document the overall feeling of the conference, I suggest inviting a photographer or videographer for specific hours.

>>> I agree the cost is high, but we really need to document the sessions and discussions, many people will not get the chance to attend, so providing recorded montaged videos would be great. this also includes producing promotions and summarized videos of the event as a whole.

• ‘Equipment of the venue’ - isn’t it part of the venue hire? This should be part of the available equipment when you rent a conference space. You might be charged with some service fees but this cost sounds like a lot more than the standard cost for this kind of service.

>>> The venue usually provides mics, a wooden podium, a flip chart and a data show. This is not sufficient, we better think of the equipment like lighting systems and sound system, electronic big screens and side screens. for example, in many occasions, in venues where we attended events, you would hear echo, or the quality of videos won't be good due to lighting, or the display screens are not clear. We thought of investing in this equipment for a comfortable place.

• What kind of translation would you like to have? Which languages? Is this a need that came from the community? I think that all past WikiArabia conferences were held in Arabic no? Or is this for international guests?

>>> We only need to support English for non-Arabic speakers and Arabic for any sessions that will be delivered in English; think of the WMF staff members who will attend, or if members of the BoT will attend, they will need interpretation. I think we don't need translation for some sessions, like those related to the Arabic language, so we'll negotiate with the organizer that the rate should be hourly.

• ‘Ushers’ - don’t you want this to be a volunteer role? Do you intend to have a call for local volunteers at all?

>>> Usually volunteers are selected from the user group, but we thought of not engaging the members as Ushers because we want them to benefit as participants, we want every member to attend the sessions and participate in the discussions; volunteering as ushers will keep them busy working; we had that experience previously and in Wikimanias where we spent time at the village of the conference to receive attendees, answering questions and explaining, we lost the chance to attend and participate in many important activities. So we thought experienced paid ushers would be easier for all.

• Gift and SWAG - We all love getting swag from conferences and events -- it is a tangible way to share our love for Wikimedia and let folks know we are part of the community. However, over the last several years reports on event swag practices have made it clear that they have a very damaging environmental footprint other than very high costs that are increasing. Therefore we now ask you to limit swag to low-cost items like stickers.

>>> We totally agree with you about the footprint, this is why we thought of things that people can use over time, for example, to save the environment, we'll provide refillable water bottles and water coolers all over the place, so we don't use plastic bottles, we'll also not provide notebooks or printed material; the tote bags and t-shirts are also useable and people would use for years. I think we can eliminate the notebooks, but we prefer to keep the bottle, tote bag and T-shirt.

• Can you please explain the ‘Selections and Schedule Committee’ item? Is this to pay for the scholarship committee? Or is this a different function? As a general practice, committee representation is a volunteer role.

>>> I know how much time and effort committee members spend, on meetings, discussions, evaluation of applications, etc. So we thought of paying each member a nominal amount as a reward for helping to organize the event. The committee consists of 5 people -senior members of the Levant Group-, with us, the directors, they will decide the selection criteria, evaluate the applications, speakers and attendees, and design the schedule. In addition, we have a designer (for the meta pages and announcements) and we have a communications officer.

Thank you again for this proposal! When you're able, please respond to the questions on meta and revise the proposal on Fluxx if needed (I have sent the application back on Fluxx so you can edit it, just don't forget to re-submit when you are done). These revisions will be due by March 4, 2024 after which the Conference Grant Committee will begin formal review of the proposal to make the funding decisions.

Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 10:29, 28 February 2024 (UTC)